Summer is such a great time of year.  It allows us to go out and do all kinds of things that we in the northeast are not able to do for six months out of the year.  It’s a great time to do outdoor videos as well, and I’m going to take full advantage of the weather to do so.  I bought a wicker chair last year that’s old.  It doesn’t have a seat in it, but does have the reinforcement underneath in the form of an X.  As soon as I saw it, I envisioned using it for a large planter.  You plant some really great flowers inside a large urn and place the urn on the “X” and you have a really nifty piece of yard art.  I’m not really one for yard art, but I’ve started this project and so far, it looks really great.  I think it needs some moss on top but otherwise, it’s coming right along.  I haven’t put polyurethane on it yet, but I also haven’t exposed it to the elements either.  I’ve never done well with planters of any kind outside as we either have too much rain or not enough, and I never remember to water planters when they need it.  Such has been the case with this planter and I’ve already had three of my little plants die.  I need to make sure I do a better job of watering it, or it will be dead before I make the video.  I do really like the idea of the piece, so maybe I just need to buy a couple more plants and get serious about watering it.  I’m really great with perennials as they seem to survive no matter what, and wish that planters had the same longevity.  My mother bought me those glass bulbs that are supposed to keep watering the planter whenever it needs it.  I filled the bulb with water and shoved it into the dirt.  It never seemed to do anything but immediately drain into the soil.   It was a terrific idea, but ineffective for my needs.  It would be great if there was something that would continuously water this planter, but it’s not near a water source, and let’s face it, I’m probably not going to keep remembering to water it.  I better get serious about making the video or this is going to be one pathetic looking planter.

Our great nephew just graduated from high school and I’ve been thinking about the card I want to make for him.  I think the square 5 1/2″ card is perfect for turning it into a graduation cap and how easy would it be to make the tassel?  It should be really cute and I’m sure there are tons of YouTube videos where they use this as their idea, but I haven’t felt the need to look them up.  I think the only way I can make sure that mine is original, is to not use any references for it.

I realize I’m kind of late in making the card and putting it online, but maybe others have the same problem with procrastination.  One of the problems I had was that I didn’t know his school colors and wanted the graduation cap to mimic them.  Then I needed to buy some matching colored embroidery thread to make the tassel and I kept forgetting to do that.  And last but not least, he’s already left for college and I don’t have that address so even when I make it, I won’t know where to send it.  Have I made enough excuses?  Probably, but then I should have made it more of a priority and gotten it done and mailed before he left.  I’m ashamed of myself and need to apologize to him for my tardiness.

I make my own dog treats, decorate their dog collars and now am making them toys.  I thought it would be fun to show you the things I do for my dogs as well as share a small video of them including Aggie, our 14 year old, Bella, our 5 year old and Honey, our 7 month old golden retrievers.  Honey’s father is an English retriever which means he is white which is where she gets her coloring from.

To make the dehydrated vegetables or fruits, I recommend using a dehydrator with the motor in the top like the one I own made by Nesco by American Harvester .  I always set the thermometer at 135 degrees.  I use either sweet potatoes, acorn squash, pie pumpkins, apples and butternut squash.  It takes between 24-48 hours depending on the dehydrator that you use.  It’s easy to check to see if they are done because they turn very hard and look dry.  If the vegetables bend, they aren’t done.  Cut the vegetables about 1/4″ thick.  If you use apples, take out the seeds, but you can use the seeds in the other vegetables.  If you don’t have a full tray, you can mix vegetables.  You can also put cinnamon on apples for you to eat and they taste really good.  I hope you’ll give this a try.  I’m sure you can do the same thing in your oven.  I’d put it on a cookie rack above a tray so the produce is not sitting flat on the tray.  I’d still set the oven at the lowest setting 135 degrees if possible and keep an eye on it.  Probably not a good project for summer as it will take a very long time to dehydrate them.

Today was a pretty good garage sale day.  I found a lady that was selling jewelry  and had some lovely colored pearls still in their original packaging as well as some nice jewelry findings.  I haven’t found a bracelet that I like for my niece’s wedding and decided I will string a bracelet together with some of the beads and gems I’ve recently bought.

I made an executive decision as well.  I have to keep my craft room door closed at all times because Honey (our puppy) thinks it is the greatest place to find things to eat.  You name it, she can find it.  Bella’s cage is in there as well and I keep accidentally locking Bella in my room because she sneaks in for a little alone time, I don’t realize she’s there, and close the door.  In addition, I could really use the space that her cage takes up for some larger storage.  Her cage also makes it almost impossible to use the closet properly.  With all of these things in mind, I’ve decided I need to relocate her cage/crate, whatever you call it, to another room.  I’m not sure if it will work as the last time we used her crate on a long trip, she wouldn’t go inside, I’m not sure why.  So I’m hoping if I do move it, she won’t be freaked out and I really do need to move it.

I liked the scrap and punch card series but decided with summer and garage sale season in full swing, I’d like to do a couple of different new series.  I have already done one dog friendly video and have several more planned.  I’d like to make a series called “Going to the dogs.”  I thought I would focus on dog treats, dog toys and dog collars.  I used to customize dog collars years ago and forgot all about them until I opened a drawer and found an old one.  I’ll make sure to show that one when I do a video on collars. I have been making my dog treats for years and all dogs love them and they are fairly easy to make.  And finally, I was at a garage sale today and a lady was selling her homemade dog toys for charity.  Of course I had to buy one, and thought, what a great idea for a video.  When I meet people who are crafty at garage sales, I’ve been trying to get them to come on the channel with their projects, but so far I haven’t had any takers.  Darn.

The other series I’m going to do is based on buying things that are in bad shape and making them look new again.  I bought a bird feeder that’s in horrible shape but is really big and would feed a ton of birds.  It needs some serious tlc, but I think it will look great when it’s done.  I mentioned in another blog a bird house that needs remodeled, so that will be a video as well.  I found a free large framed print that I really liked that was in such bad shape, it was free.  I had to have it.  I really liked the print and think it will be terrific when it’s done.  My friend Lynn has a piece of yard art that she was going to sell in our upcoming garage sale, but it was too cute to sell.  She thought it was too faded and worn to keep using, but I volunteered to do a makeover and we are on our way.  I’m thinking of calling this series “Something old becomes something new again.”  If you have a different name, I’m open to ideas on both series.  I love it when I get ideas from you.

I am really excited about both series and think they will be a great diversion from the norm.  If I can do it, you can too.

Ok, so I hate to sound stupid, but when I’m on YouTube, I’ll have what I think is a message, but it actually says,  “Jane Doe has added you to her circle.”  Of course, Jane Doe isn’t a real name, but what does it mean?  Why does the internet have so many things on it with no explanation of why or what it’s for?  I’d like to know.  Why do we have to look to YouTube for someone to do a video explaining circles when the circle creators could just as easily explain it to us when we click on the person who wants to add us to their circle?  I know I’m out of touch when it comes to technology, but it’s really frustrating that these sites don’t feel any kind of explanation is necessary.  Here’s what I’d like to know–

1.  What is the purpose of circles?
2. What happens when you become part of one?
3. How do I look at the circles I’m in?
4. Why do I feel like YouTube would answer my questions?
5. Why am I fighting the need to go to YouTube to find my answers?

I guess number five is the problem.  I don’t want to have to go to a second website to understand the first one.  I guess I’m just stubborn, or old.  Probably both.

I made a video today showing how to make dog treats by dehydrating sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I thought it would be fun to make the video outside under our canopy.  The first video went well until I watched it and realized I cut off my head.  Not so good.  The next video was better, but I repeatedly called butternut squash, acorn.  I’m not sure what I was thinking.  I decided to stick with that take and would correct the mistakes in editing.  The main issue, I think, is my ego.  I’ve been taking prednisone, a steroid, to try to bring my arthritis under control.  The one side effect that really makes me crazy is what’s called a “moon face.”  That’s when your face is round, and I mean really round.  The bottom portion of your face really looks odd and I absolutely hate it.  I know that the medicine is helping me, but can’t stand to look at myself in a mirror, let alone watch myself on video.  I have to get past it because it’s who I am right now and I just have to let it go.  I wish I had taken a moment in the video to talk about my moon face and let people know it’s a fact of life when you are dealing with health issues like mine.  Maybe I’ll just put a note on the screen that explains it.  Sounds like I’m chickening out.  Possibly, probably. Ok, I’m a chicken. I tried to find the origin of “chickening out,” but the website wouldn’t allow me to copy and paste the information here.  Basically, chickens were considered scrawny, therefore it only makes sense that if you don’t want to fight, you were considered a chicken. There was a lot more information, but that’s the gist of it.  Cluck if you understand.

I love when a project presents itself to me and I don’t have to think about what to do next.  We have a bird “couple” that have been making their nest in a bird house of ours for the last three years.  This year, we had a bad storm and the roof of the house separated from the wire that holds it in place.  We put the house on a table under the awning on our patio in the hopes that if they had eggs inside, they might be able to stay with them.  Fortunately, they relocated to another bird house of ours, so we’re pretty sure they haven’t had their eggs yet.  But they keep sitting on the old house and chirping every morning, making me think that they either miss it, or want it refurbished.  My job, should I choose to accept it, is to fix the old house and make it usable again.  Next year at this time, I want the bird family to know their home is there and waiting for them.  Maybe they will relocate back to it this year if I do it soon enough.  So there you have it, a project that spoke to me, literally.

I had already talked about water color pencils, so am focusing now on colored pencils.  If you are not familiar with my channel, I am a crafter with physical limitations and I make videos to help others with similar issues to be able to find products that will work best or easiest for us.

The pricing is based on 48 count and you can certainly find smaller sets of all of these pencils.  I chose 48, because of the set of Marco Renoirs that I own and find that there are enough variations of color within that set to give you a nice mix to color with.  Also, the prices I found were the least expensive online and you might find them less expensive elsewhere.  I just did a Google search on them.  I buy all of these products myself, and am not paid by any retailers for using their products or for recommending their websites.  The information I give on this video is strictly my opinion.

Crayola at Walmart for 50 is $6.97 currently, and will probably be less expensive in back-to-school sales.

Artist’s Loft from Michaels is from a multi-media set of 126 pieces for $41.99 (before a coupon). There are 30 colored pencils in that set.  I found a set of 48 of them at Michaels for $23.99 before using a coupon.

Koh-I-Noor set of 24 woodless pencils (the largest set I could find) is $12.95 on Ebay.

Marco Renoir from Japan (I couldn’t find them in regular retailers) and they were $36.08 for 48 from Ebay.  You will need to keep in mind that they come from either Japan or Hong Kong, so there is a lag time in getting them (up to a month).

Prismacolor Premier 48 count is $27.97 + $4.95 shipping from Dickblick.com.

I found the Crayola pencils to have a decent pigment for the price, but were hard to use as they aren’t very waxy.  If they are affordable for you, you might want to try them.

The Artist Lofts aren’t very easy to use and the pigment in them is horrible.  This is by far the worst choice of these pencils.  I would not recommend them and I only bought them for the case they were in during a Christmas blow-out sale.

Koh-I-Noor–These are a great value as they are all pigment and no wood.  They are mainly primary colors so if you are looking for non-primary, this might not be the brand for you.  They are easier to use than the first two, and produce bold pigment, but I found my hand hurting after coloring with them for maybe thirty minutes.

Marco Renoir–These are nicely pigmented and waxy so easy to use.  I like this set and if I didn’t have a big set of the Prismacolors, probably would have bought a larger set of these.  They feel like they are a little bit smaller around than the Prismacolors so if you need a thicker pencil, you might want to go with with Prismacolors for the price difference.

Prismacolor Premiers–They have great pigment, and are waxy and easy to use.  I really like these pencils and recommend them highly.  I also really like to buy things at dickblick.com as their prices are usually the cheapest on the web for art products.  I like that they only charge flat rate of $4.95 for shipping as well. (I don’t get paid anything to say that either.)

I did not use any blending agents and only tried to blend with the pencils themselves.  I wanted the pencils to speak for themselves and could have added another twenty minutes in blending, but chose not to.  If you’d like to see a video with different blending techniques, I’d be happy to do one.

Finally got the video of the different colored pencils uploaded.  I was kind of surprised at the difference between pencils.  There wasn’t really that big of a difference in cost (except Crayolas), but a huge difference in performance.  I could not believe the quality of the Artist Loft pencils.  Michaels markets them for adults, but I wouldn’t even consider those pencils for a child.  There was almost no pigment in them.  You could press down to the point that the pigment was not only on the page, but laying on top to be brushed off, and still, the color wasn’t there.  Horrible quality and I’m kind of surprised that Michaels sells them as their in-store brand.

The Koh-I-Noor woodless pencils are nice, but the color selection is really limited to primary colors.  I think with the coloring book craze, they would offer a larger color range to appeal to a larger audience.  They did sell a set of thirty-six at one point, but don’t any longer.

I really liked the Marco Renoir’s and other than the long wait time to get them, they are a nice pencil.  They aren’t very expensive, less than $1 a pencil, and I think are a good option and I probably would have bought a larger set if I didn’t already have a lot of Prismacolors.

The Prismacolors are lovely to use and feel a little bit thicker than the Marco Renoirs.  I really like them and haven’t had any problem with quality control as others have mentioned.  I haven’t had to re-sharpen any for broken lead and really enjoy coloring with them.  As far as price difference, they were also less than $1 a pencil, so they are pretty comparable to the Marco’s.